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The 12 best biographies of 2024

Throughout 2024, biographies consistently stole the show. From renowned authors to heads of state, game-changing activists and cultural icons, these 12 illuminating profiles delighted and inspired us.
Throughout 2024, biographies consistently stole the show. From renowned authors to heads of state, game-changing activists and cultural icons, these 12 illuminating profiles delighted and inspired us.
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Gather Me

In her plucky, intimate memoir, Glory Edim, the creator of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, tethers the books and authors she has found and loved to her own rocky journey of self-discovery—it’s reader catnip.
NonfictionMemoirEssays

My Pisces Heart

Review by Natalia Berry

Born in the American South to a banking family, Jennifer Neal has been traveling across continents, reinventing and reimagining herself for most of her life. Her migration story spans the American South, Japan, Australia and Germany in My Pisces Heart: A Black Immigrant’s Search for Home Across Four Continents. Neal (Notes on Her Color) is both a lyrical writer and an astute historian, studying the complexities of race and Blackness with tenderness and reverence in each place she has lived. 

Neal unpacks imperialism through a queer, Black, American lens as she navigates love, friendship and career. Some of the best essays in My Pisces Heart describe her college years in Japan and her search for solidarity among Black and Japanese people. She finds allies and mentors in academia, connects with a coalition of Black studies enthusiasts and visits the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. She explores how racist Western philosophies were brought to Japan, yet doesn’t shy away from Japan’s problematic history of colorism. Other heartbreaking and nuanced essays follow her time in Australia, where she battles casual racism and experiences a difficult romantic relationship. Here, she explores how the Aboriginal people of Australia keep their communities alive through protests and demonstrations. While white Australians often sought to isolate Neal from this community, she felt a kinship with them due to the similar histories of Australia’s and America’s anti-miscegenation laws. 

In lovely astrology interstitials that appear as vignettes before each section, Neal analyzes her birth chart to provide a framework through which to view the world beyond herself, without borders. These sections inspire the reader to look outward—and up—in search of their own guiding light. 

Throughout, Neal is quick to direct the reader to the hidden histories of Black people all over the world. Though racial homogeneity is accepted as the norm in places like Japan and Germany, Neal proves that Black people exist everywhere and, in many cases, always have. In an age when we can see the devastating impacts of colonialism on devices in the palms of our hands, My Pisces Heart is an essential read for anyone curious about cultural differences and eager to explore what it means to be in solidarity with those oppressed across the globe.

Jennifer Neal’s essential memoir and travelogue, My Pisces Heart, proves that Black people exist all over the world and, in many cases, always have.

Savings and Trust

Justene Hill Edwards’ incisive Savings and Trust chronicles the formation and failure of the Freedman’s Bank, and reveals the deep history of the racial wealth gap.
NonfictionSocial ScienceEnvironment

Valley So Low

Review by Stephen Elliott

The crusading savant with messy hair and scattered papers is a common protagonist in legal thrillers. The archetype—played by Mark Ruffalo or Julia Roberts or Matt Damon in films over the years—comes to life in attorney Jim Scott, the center of gravity in Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe. Here, Tennessee-based journalist Jared Sullivan chronicles a yearslong battle in the wake of one of America’s worst environmental disasters. 

In December 2008, a dike ruptured at a power plant in East Tennessee, deluging the surrounding rivers and landscape with more than 1 billion gallons of coal waste. The Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned electric utility corporation, pledged to clean up its mess, and hired engineering conglomerate Jacobs Engineering to oversee the work. 

It didn’t take long before the cleanup workers started falling ill. Though they’d been told repeatedly the site was safe and the air was clean, the workers began to suspect the coal ash they were cleaning up was to blame for their new ailments and faltering health. They alleged that Jacobs was preventing them from wearing protective gear and tampering with air quality sensor data in an effort to avoid further public scrutiny and speed the lucrative project along. 

Sullivan tells the story of the workers, the TVA and Jacobs officials in charge and, centrally, Scott and his collaborators, who took on the workers’ case in an effort to extract justice from the tragic disaster. The author paints vivid portraits of key characters; love lives and family dramas help render the victims in color, making their plight all the more upsetting. 

Horrifying details and anecdotes pile up as the story unfolds, and it’s easy to understand how righteous anger could fuel a lengthy legal quest with no promise of financial reward. Propulsive and written with flair, Valley So Low is a valuable addition to the pantheon of legal thrillers. 

Jared Sullivan’s Valley So Low chronicles an environmental disaster in Tennessee with the flair of a propulsive legal thriller.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

The Water-Smart Garden

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Arizona horticulturalist Noelle Johnson, sometimes known as the “AZ plant lady,” shares her expertise and longtime passion for gardening in a hot, dry climate in this informative guide to gardening in our changing climate. The Water-Smart Garden: Techniques and Strategies for Conserving, Capturing, and Efficiently Using Water in Today’s Climate . . . and Tomorrow’s, of course, is not simply for those living in or near the desert, but also has practical use for gardeners elsewhere. As Johnson notes at the outset, “shrinking water supplies also are occurring in more temperate regions.” 

Johnson’s clear, accessible text begins with some basic information about how plants use water. Throughout, she aims to assuage concerns that a waterwise garden only consists of rocks and cacti. She includes chapters on plant choices, building drought-resistant soil and watering efficiently—in other words, giving gardeners essential tools and techniques to plan, make changes and maintain a sustainable garden. Johnson’s chapter on capturing rainfall and passive water harvesting is especially useful, as precipitation patterns shift. Tips, graphics and photographs demonstrate how to maximize available water throughout the year. 

Not much of a gardener? The Water-Smart Garden will also be a great choice for those who don’t wish to spend much time or money on their yard and want to keep water bills low. Johnson’s book includes charts to help gardeners and homeowners choose the best trees, shrubs, vines and plants for their region. Simply put, if you’re a gardener concerned about the climate, this book is for you.

Noelle Johnson’s book includes charts to help gardeners and homeowners choose the best trees, shrubs, vines and plants for their region.

Your Asian Veggie Patch

Connie Cao’s well-organized, easy-to-follow book provides guidance on growing, harvesting and cooking Asian veggies.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Garden Wonderland

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In the innovative Garden Wonderland: Creating Life-Changing Outdoor Spaces for Beauty, Harvest, Meaning, and Joy, garden designer Leslie Bennett teams up with writer and editor Julie Chai to explore how to create outdoor spaces that nurture family, friends and community. 

At the outset, the authors suggest that readers grab a blank notepad to jot down ideas and goals as they go along. And that’s wise advice, as this book is replete with helpful tips as well as the fundamentals. Part 1 focuses on the practical, which will be appreciated by those new to gardening or garden design. The authors share four principles that ground their approach to gardening: making plants part of your daily life; surrounding yourself with beauty; making space for connection; and fortifying your sense of belonging. Most importantly, they stress that rather than conforming to someone else’s idea of what a garden should be, individuals and families should create spaces that work for them. Bennett and Chai also discuss considerations such as space allotment, seating arrangements and sun exposure. There’s also helpful information on design concepts, with tips about selecting plants for foliage and color.

The second part of the book focuses on inspiration. This section features garden “wonderlands” that celebrate edible and floral landscapes, along with gardens designed to serve as gathering places or to spotlight cultural heritages. Full color photographs throughout show gardens, plants, and the individuals and families who treasure them. With its seamless integration of gardening principles with advanced design ideas, Garden Wonderland is the perfect gift for new gardeners—or anyone in need of a little inspiration.  

With its seamless integration of gardening principles with advanced design ideas, Garden Wonderland is the perfect gift for new gardeners—or anyone in need of a little inspiration.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

The Contemporary African Kitchen

Review by Laura Hutson Hunter

James Beard Award-winning author Alexander Smalls includes 120 recipes from 33 chefs, restaurateurs, caterers, cooks and writers in The Contemporary African Kitchen: Home Cooking Recipes From the Leading Chefs of Africa. It’s a massive undertaking that spans an entire continent filled with innumerable culinary styles. But that breadth is important to Smalls, who writes in the book’s foreword that “our culture has been kept alive in great part through our culinary currency and traditions.” The book is organized into broad geographic segments: Northern, Eastern, Central, Southern and Western Africa are all represented. The Northern African section includes a particularly interesting recipe for Egyptian okra stew, which is loaded with garlic, basil, cilantro and mint and looks at once lush and hearty. In his description of the stew, chef Mostafa Seif writes, “Some foods are as much for nourishment as they are a tool for showing off.” He goes on to describe how people would hang okra from their balconies on the days that it was on the menu as a kind of demonstration of abundance. This book is great for adventurous eaters from all backgrounds, but that’s not to say an experimental palette is a prerequisite; if you’re more comfortable with traditionally American fare, you may be surprised by how familiar some of these dishes are: from Ethiopian deviled eggs and a chocolate cake recipe from Uganda to a buttery, garlicky recipe for South African mashed potatoes with spinach.

 

James Beard Award-winning author Alexander Smalls’ The Contemporary African Kitchen collects recipes that span an entire continent filled with innumerable culinary styles and traditions.

A Year in Bloom

Planting bulbs usually means planning ahead. A Year in Bloom is a practical, beautiful handbook that will find a place in any gardener’s library.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

Our South

Review by Becky Libourel Diamond

The recipes in the lavishly presented Our South: Black Food Through My Lens feature a fascinating blend of ingredients, flavors and techniques. Acclaimed chef Ashleigh Shanti, a queer Black woman from Appalachia, shares the region’s history and her own backstory to show how she developed a love of all things culinary. Recalling past meals rich in bacon, lard, butter and country ham, Shanti includes an abundance of regional dishes, such as Virginia Brunswick stew, and black pepper quail and leather britches, a southern Appalachian specialty dish of dried green beans and smoky seasoned meat. I made the gingered shrimp, watermelon and peach skewers—like eating summer on a plate—and the cucumber and celery heart salad, which is bathed in zesty, pickled goodness and tasted even better the second day. Shanti notes that her book is meant to “amplify your understanding of the complexities of Black food” and “dispel the myths of what America thinks Black cooking is and is not.” Our South is a perfect gift for anyone curious about the intersections of food and culture.

Ashleigh Shanti’s excellent, lavishly presented Our South twines the recipes and culture of Black Appalachia with the chef’s own culinary journey.

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